Skin Deep
by Fitz Auriga
Summary: A tragic accident imperils StarFleet's research into the Romulan cloaking device. Why does the sole surviving scientist mystify Kirk, anger McCoy, and challenge Spock? Will she use her gifts to rescue them from peril? Can they save her life without driving Spock into madness?


Skin Deep

"All phasers are gone, sir!" called the Navigator.

"Klingons still pursuing, sir," added the First Officer.

"Take evasive action!" the Captain snapped, and tensely watched the screen. The menace astern slid by on the port side. Captain Horace Lloyd thanked his stars that the U.S.S. _Loyal_ was more manoeuvrable than their Klingon attacker.

There was a bright flash on the screen, and the enemy ship disintegrated before Captain Lloyd's astounded eyes.

"What in space was that?" he demanded of the officer at the Science Station.

"It seems to have collided with something, sir," came the answer. "Debris analysis indicates an asteroid."

"But there was no asteroid there," objected the Helmsman.

"Signal, sir," interrupted the Communications Officer. "Distress signal from a short range shuttle."

"A shuttle? Out here?" exclaimed the incredulous Lloyd.

"Klingon survivors?" someone guessed.

"No, they didn't have time," he dismissed the idea.

"Could be from Science Station 16," put in his First Officer.

"Not in a short range shuttle," Lloyd shook his head. "Arrange to pick up whoever it is. Have someone from Security there. Now, I want some damage reports." For the first time he noticed the smoke in the air.

"Damage extensive, sir," came a report. "All decks report fire " A klaxon blared-one that the crew had heard only in drills.

"Engines are going!" Lloyd heard his Chief Engineer's voice over the speaker. The Bridge erupted into a fireworks display of sparks and smoke.

"Abandon ship! Out! Everybody out!" Lloyd pushed men into the turbo lift, and grabbed his log tapes on the way.

Lloyd just reached the last lifeship when a man inside called,

"Hanson and Webber aren't here, sir." Lloyd looked up and down the smoky corridors. The grimy Engineer and the Security man suddenly stumbled into view. They half led, half carried a woman Lloyd had never seen before. He ran to help.

"Shuttle survivor, sir!" yelled the Engineer. They almost threw her into the lifeship.

"Let's go," Lloyd ordered. As they shot into space, a ball of fire filled the place where they had been moments before.

The captain took a moment to mourn the death of his ship, then punched buttons on the communications panel.

"All lifeships, this is Captain Lloyd. Chart a course for Science Station 16. Proceed at all speed." His eye fell on the woman from the shuttle. She returned his gaze unblinkingly.

()

Excerpt from Captain's log:

The _Enterprise_ has been ordered to proceed to Science Station 16 to pick up a Doctor Mara, who was rescued by the U.S.S._ Loyal_ just before the _Loyal_ itself blew up. Doctor Mara is to be given transportation to Starfleet Command, top priority.

Kirk finished recording and used more force than necessary to punch the recorder buttons off. He scowled as he looked at the screen and saw the stars rapidly stream past. He didn't see the doctor behind him frown his concern at Spock.

The two officers knew Kirk very well, and would not let him become so tense that his judgement was impaired. In a captain, that could be fatal.

"Captain?" Spock asked, in a respectful invitation to his friend to vent his emotions. Kirk turned a baleful gaze on the Science Officer. He was fully aware of the Vulcan's motive for asking the question. He was grateful for the opportunity, but annoyed that Spock would set himself up as a target for his captain's wrath.

"We're supposed to be on a voyage of exploration, Mr. Spock," he fumed, "not serving as an intergalactic taxi service for civilians who find themselves stranded."

"Doctor Mara can hardly be termed a stranded civilian, Captain," his Science Officer admonished calmly. "Scientific gossip has it that this particular scientist was working on a project concerning the Romulan cloaking device that we . . . obtained from the Romulans." Kirk's eyebrows rose as he remembered the episode.

"It's nice they're working on it," said McCoy, "but why out in this sector of space?"

"I would imagine," the unflappable Spock replied, "because it is fairly close to my home planet."

"What does that have to do with it?" asked Kirk in surprise.

"It would seem logical," and Spock heard McCoy snort. "The Romulans and Vulcans are distantly related, and the cloaking device is a Romulan invention. Vulcan scientists should be best able to study and perfect the device." Kirk shrugged, unable to argue with that logic.

"That's all fine and good," persisted McCoy, "But where does this doctor come in?"

"I have heard that Doctor Mara is eminently suited to work with Vulcans, though I do not know why," Spock admitted.

"Oh, great," McCoy groaned. "Just what we need: Someone who gets along with Vulcans."

"I don't get it, Bones," Kirk said. McCoy looked at him in exasperation.

"Look," he explained. "It only stands to reason that anyone who gets along with Vulcans won't get along with Humans."

"We shall see if that is a logical assumption, Doctor," Spock ignored the doctor's hostility. "I, for one, will be interested to meet Doctor Mara." He looked unusually pensive as he leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers together.

"Why the interest, Spock?" Kirk asked.

"Well, sir, if the account of the captain of the _Loyal_ is correct, the scientists must have tried to cloak both stationary and moving objects, such as the asteroid that destroyed the Klingons, and the shuttle the doctor was on. The fact that the Klingon ship did not manoeuvre to avoid the asteroid suggests that the scientists met with some success."

"But both the asteroid and the shuttle were destroyed," pointed out Kirk.

"Yes, Captain," the Vulcan said, "Which means that Doctor Mara is the only survivor, and that the research equipment has been lost. Unless Doctor Mara has an excellent memory and total recall, we may regret that all the Vulcans died when the Klingons hit that asteroid." He turned abruptly to his control panel.

McCoy and Kirk weren't the only ones who looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Kirk realized that Spock had probably known most of the dead Vulcan scientists personally. The captain of the _Enterprise_ now understood the importance of this mission. His resentment of his orders vanished. It was replaced by concern that their important guest not run afoul of either his Science or his Medical Officers before they reached their destination.

()

Both Spock and McCoy were on hand with Kirk in the Transporter Room when Science Station 16 beamed up Doctor Mara. The chamber lit, and a golden whirlwind appeared in a female form. Kirk and McCoy glanced at each other quizzically, but Spock averted his eyes. They looked back at the chamber as the beaming completed, and saw that Doctor Mara, though she had a good figure, had to be the plainest woman they had ever seen.

Not that she was ugly, for her features were all regular and well proportioned, but there was something missing that could have made her a real beauty. Her mouse brown hair was pulled back severely from her face. It made her expression seem grimmer than necessary. McCoy wasn't surprised that this scientist had been at home with Vulcans.

Her grey eyes flicked momentarily to Spock as she noted his ears and eyebrows. The Vulcan was suddenly very interested in the floor, his eyebrows drawn slightly together. Kirk wondered what had disturbed his First Officer. He would have to have a word with him later.

"Doctor Mara," he said warmly, and stepped forward to help her down the stairs. He wondered if it was his imagination or did she fumble when she tried to take his hand? Certainly, her movements were very deliberate, almost as if she were elderly. Kirk was even more puzzled.

"I'm Captain Kirk. Welcome aboard the _Enterprise_," he continued.

"Thank you, Captain Kirk." There was neither smile nor warmth in her voice. Kirk remembered what she had been through, and decided that he would make allowances for her behaviour.

"May I introduce Doctor McCoy, our Chief Medical Officer?" he turned to McCoy.

"How do you do, Doctor?" she said. She carefully held out her hand for a brief handshake. Still no expression crossed her face.

"And my First and Science Officer, Mr. Spock," Kirk continued the introductions. McCoy rolled his eyes behind Doctor Mara's back, and Kirk frowned at him.

"Mr. Spock." She did not offer to shake his hand. "It was my honour and privilege to work with the scientists of your planet. I deeply regret the circumstances that bring me here. They were honourable people, and taught me many things." Now, even though her face was unchanged, Kirk detected a subtle inflection in her tone. Spock stiffened slightly before he replied.

"It is not everyone who can work with Vulcans, Doctor."

"That's the most backhanded compliment I've ever heard Spock give," McCoy whispered to Kirk. "If it was a compliment," he amended.

"True," Doctor Mara replied in a colourless tone. Kirk interrupted the exchange.

"Doctor Mara, I'm sure you must want to rest after all your adventures. I'll have you shown to your quarters if you wish."

"I have learned the Vulcan method of conservation of energy, Captain," she stated, "so I am rested. However, I did come away without any personal effects. If I could be so bold "

"By all means," Kirk smiled. There was a woman in there after all. "Yeoman, show Doctor Mara to Supply. Provide her with everything she needs."

"Thank you, Captain," the scientist said flatly as she was led away.

"Whew!" commented McCoy after the doors swished closed, "Miss Congeniality she is not. If she smiled, it would probably break her face."

"True," agreed Kirk. "Nor is she likely to win any beauty contests. But there must be a reason she is so important. How about it, Spock?"

"I notice you two hit it off right away," McCoy said sardonically. The Vulcan avoided his friend's eyes.

"I would prefer not to comment at this time, Captain," he said formally. Briefly, Kirk contemplated denying his request, then saw Spock's stiff expression.

"Very well, Mr. Spock. Dismissed." The tall Science Officer almost scuttled out of the room. McCoy's mouth dropped open.

"Well, I'll be," he said in amazement. "He looked like a kid who'd just got his hands slapped. Did I miss something?"

"I think we both did, Bones," Kirk said as he stared thoughtfully at the now closed doors.

()

Spock sat on the edge of his bed and struggled to regain his composure. His discreet attempt of the Vulcan aura probe revealed the woman's strength of mind and mental awareness.

"I should have taken into account the possibility of her Vulcan associates training her to be aware of mental intrusion," he told himself. He knew this use of the aura probe was treading the edge of the Vulcan behaviour code.

He remembered learning that code at his father's knee, and the painful fight to live by it. He remembered the stiff penalties of scorn and rebuke when he failed. This woman knew what he had done, and had warned him that she knew. He heard echoes of his mother's patient explanations of Vulcan ways to her half human child.

"Mother?" He caught at that thought again. Why was he reminded of his mother? She was the only other Human he knew with such emotional control-such high mental barriers.

His mother's mind felt like the barriers were layered, built up over time, but in his fleeting glimpse of Dr. Mara's mind, he sensed her walls were different, as if they were all erected at once. Intrigued, he considered the possibilities, and resolved to talk with Doctor McCoy about it later. At peace with himself again, he returned to the Bridge.

()

On the Bridge, Kirk signed the requisition form for Dr. Mara's supplies. He noticed an item.

"Ah, Yeoman, I don't know much about these things," he began, and the girl looked helpful. "But isn't that a rather large amount of makeup?" The yeoman looked uncomfortable.

"Yes, it is, sir, but she insisted that she needed it." Kirk marvelled again at the creature called woman.

"Well, perhaps she does," he said casually as he returned the clipboard.

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." The yeoman hurried off the Bridge.

If Kirk expected a transformed guest, he was disappointed when the turbo lift doors opened to reveal Dr. Mara. He looked closely as she came onto the Bridge, but though her figure was more suited to the casual dress she wore, her facial appearance was unchanged.

"Ever been on the Bridge of a starship before, Doctor?" he asked. She shook her head.

"It's fascinating," she said. Her face didn't reflect her expressed state of mind.

"By the way, our computers are at your service if you need to compile a report before we reach Starfleet Command." The scientist shook her head again.

"I am under orders not to record any of our research until we reach our destination. An instrument which I designed is there. With it I can record and print the information very quickly." Spock, who was unusually subdued until that moment, perked up, though he did not turn from his station.

"Sounds like quite the gadget," Kirk remarked. "You say you designed it yourself?"

"Yes, Captain," she answered. "I am what you might call a `gadgeteer'. I design and improve designs on instruments and machines. That is partly why I was chosen to work with the Vulcan science team." Kirk decided to question the scientist about the project.

"My First Officer surmised that you were working on a variation of the Romulan cloaking device," he said quietly. Her gaze rested on Spock, who Kirk knew was listening.

"It's a logical deduction, given the fact that the _Enterprise_ was instrumental in obtaining the device," she answered indirectly. "It would be in violation of my orders to discuss it any further, Captain." Kirk nodded. He knew Starfleet Command, and the kind of orders they were likely to give.

"I understand, Doctor," he said. "But this instrument of yours it will help you recall all the necessary information?" Doctor Mara looked at him, her face still calm.

"I said it would help record and print, Captain," she corrected. "I have no difficulty with recalling anything. I believe the old-fashioned term is a photographic memory. My instrument is tuned to my brain patterns, to put it in laymen's terms, and it will transfer my memories to printed form as fast as I recall them." Kirk was impressed, and though he couldn't see Spock's face, his officer's back was ramrod straight.

"Amazing," Kirk said sincerely. Doctor Mara nodded.

"Captain, that is not why I am here," she changed the subject. "When the _Loyal_ lifeships arrived on Science Station 16, one lifeship was missing. Search parties were sent out, but found nothing. It was assumed that the lifeship disengagement mechanism had failed, and the crew on the lifeship perished with the _Loyal_."

"It's possible," said Kirk uncomfortably. He didn't like the idea of crewmen being blown up.

"No, Captain," said Dr. Mara adamantly. "I designed and tested that particular mechanism myself. It would not fail unless the lifeship was destroyed in its dock." Kirk shifted his weight in his chair.

"You think the lifeship is out there somewhere?" he prompted. She fumbled to put her hand into her pocket, and finally pulled out a piece of paper.

"I have calculated the lifeship's probable path. It coincides with that of the _Enterprise_, though they would not have the fuel to go far. If I could plot it on the screen "

"Mr. Chekov, assist Doctor Mara "

"No need. This control panel looks relatively simple," she said as her eyes took in every detail. Chekov looked helplessly at his captain, who motioned him to stand aside. The scientist sat in the navigator's chair, and handed the paper to Chekov.

"If you'll just look over my shoulder and make sure I don't make any grave errors-"

Her movements over the buttons of the control panel were deft and sure. Her fingers flew, in marked contrast with the slow way she had used her hands before. Chekov gave up following the calculations on the paper, and stared at the scientist in amazement. Even Spock turned for a better view, while Sulu watched from the corner of his eye.

"There, I think that's it," she said, and their course flashed onto the screen, with the shorter line of the possible lifeship trajectory superimposed on it. "There will be a certain percentage of leeway, depending on what the crew aboard does. But it takes into account the direction the ship would have been ejected from the _Loyal_, and assumes that something rendered their navigational systems inoperable.

"Should they repair themselves, the nearest shelter is still Science Station 16, directly on our path. By now they should have very little fuel, and perhaps enough oxygen to last a few days." She rose from the chair, her movements again clumsy and awkward.

"Thank you, Dr. Mara," Kirk said. "We'll take special care to monitor all distress frequencies within the area that you have shown."

Without another word, she left the Bridge, and normal activity resumed. Kirk slid from his chair, and went to stand beside the Science Station. Spock didn't lift his head.

"I find I must revise my first opinion of her," Kirk ventured.

"Her logic is sound," the Vulcan conceded. "Her calculations are correct." He raised his face to an upper screen. "I begin to understand why she worked so well with my people. Yet something puzzles me. There is an anomaly here, but I haven't been able to pinpoint it."

"What kind of anomaly?" Kirk asked.

"A mental one: She is from earth, yet " Spock trailed off.

"Yet?" Kirk prompted. Spock shook his head.

"I don't know, Captain. Perhaps I should ask Doctor McCoy. Human psychology is sometimes too complicated, especially when it comes to the female of the species." Kirk gave a chuckle.

"You just said a mouthful, Spock." When the Vulcan regarded him with a quizzical look, he smiled again. "Let me know what you find out," he said as he returned to his chair.

()

McCoy hurried into the lab. He wondered why the lab techs were so slow with the tests he had requested.

"Where are those test " He stopped dead, his mouth open. His lab techs clustered around a petite figure as she replaced a cover plate on a piece of equipment. At the sound of his voice, the lab techs turned.

"Just what is going on here?" McCoy asked angrily as he strode to the little group. "Where are my test results? And what are you doing here?"

Dr. Mara regarded him dispassionately.

"I was merely improving the efficiency of your lab equipment, Dr. McCoy," was her quiet answer.

"You were what?" McCoy sputtered, outraged. "Who gave you the right to do that? What qualifies you to `improve' my lab's efficiency?"

"If you wish to rely on inefficient equipment, that is your choice, of course," was the reply, in a tone that was infuriatingly composed. McCoy was so strongly reminded of Spock, he saw red.

"I want my equipment left intact, and I don't want pseudo Vulcans wandering in here tinkering with it!" he shouted. "Now get out of my lab."

"As you wish." Dr. Mara walked slowly from the lab. McCoy clenched his fists as he watched her go.

"If she damaged even one microcircuit," he muttered as he turned to berate his uneasy lab techs, "I'll have her head, Starfleet or not."

()

Excerpt from Captain's personal log:

Any hopes that our passenger would give us an uneventful journey have disappeared. Dr. McCoy refuses to be in the same room as Dr. Mara, due to a dispute over her use of his lab. My Science Officer still acts preoccupied when she is present, and Dr. Mara rarely speaks to him. I have called a conference of my chief officers to try and resolve the problem.

Kirk turned off the recorder just as Spock joined him in the Briefing Room. Scott soon followed, and just settled into his chair when McCoy stomped in. Kirk decided to ignore the medical man's ill humour.

"Gentlemen, we have a problem," he announced.

McCoy snorted and muttered, "You bet we do," under his breath. Kirk knew that now was the time to be firm.

"May I remind you, Doctor McCoy, that it is Doctor Mara's privilege to be admitted into any part of the ship." McCoy's face grew red with anger.

"That may be," he retorted, furious, "but that doesn't give her the right to tinker with my equipment!" He banged his fist on the desk.

"Was any of it in fact damaged, Doctor?" the imperturbable Spock asked. The doctor didn't want to answer, but under the gaze of the others, he gave up.

"No, it wasn't," he admitted, and stared fixedly at the triangular viewer in the middle of the desk. "But there was some very delicate equipment in there. Lord knows what she might have done if she had tampered with that."

"I talked to the lab techs," Kirk said evenly. "They tell me that her `tampering' resulted in more efficient and more versatile use of that equipment." McCoy glared back at him.

"It seems that she has a special ability to see a piece of equipment, and visualize improvements and modifications to it," Spock said, in an effort to calm the doctor down. It had the opposite effect.

"Well, let her go and `improve' your lab, Mister Spock. At least she's supposed to be able to get along with your kind."

"Bones!" Kirk's order cut through McCoy's rage. The doctor sank back into his chair, his mouth set in a sullen gash across his face. Kirk turned to his Chief Engineer, who had listened uncomfortably to the argument.

"Well, Mr. Scott, it seems that you hold the key to our guest's good behaviour." The man looked astonished.

"Me, sir?" he asked.

"Why, yes," Kirk assured him. "It appears, as Mr. Spock has pointed out, that Dr. Mara is admirably suited to `tamper' with delicate equipment, and improve it. Perhaps she could look at, say, that part of the transporter that has been giving us so many problems." Scotty looked doubtful about letting anyone near his beloved equipment, no matter how qualified they were.

"She would always be subject to your supervision," Kirk hastily added, "and no modifications would be made without your approval." The Engineer considered this.

"Aye, perhaps she could give us a hand, at that. I'll just go and talk with her now, sir, if I may." Kirk nodded, and as the engineer left the room, it occurred to Scotty that there were other places that she could look at as well.

"Well," Kirk said in relief, "that should keep her busy for a little while, at least."

"Just as long as she stays out of my lab," an unrepentant McCoy mumbled.

"I'm afraid, Doctor," Spock said severely, "that your personal antipathy towards Dr. Mara may be clouding your professional ability to view her case objectively."

"I've told you before, Spock," the doctor lashed out. "There's nothing wrong with Dr. Mara that a lot less exposure to Vulcans wouldn't cure-and the same goes for me. If I may be excused." He didn't wait to see if Kirk dismissed him.

Spock turned to Kirk, one eyebrow raised.

"I gather you tried to talk with him about your `mental anomaly' theory," Kirk observed. Spock nodded.

"He refused to discuss it, for reasons that he repeated to us now. Most illogical, if not irrational."

"Just what is your theory, anyway?" Kirk asked.

"I wouldn't call it a theory in the proper sense," the didactic First Officer replied. "Every time Dr. Mara has been in my proximity, I have attempted to sense her mental `aura', or low level of mental activity that all humans broadcast. It's similar to a faint hum, and I can pick it up if I concentrate." Kirk looked nonplussed.

"No, Captain," Spock said as he interpreted his friend's expression correctly, "I have rarely attempted it, for the simple reason that I enjoy my privacy, and respect everyone else's." Reassured, Kirk considered the Vulcan's words.

"You haven't been able to sense Dr. Mara's `aura', is that it?" he asked, and received an affirmative nod from Spock. "What does that mean?" he speculated. "What would cause that?"

"It may be that her association with Vulcan scientists led her to develop enough control to contain the broadcast of the aura, but I find that difficult to accept. I know of only one human to have successfully attempted it."

"Your mother," Kirk guessed.

"Correct," Spock answered quietly, "And it took her many years. Given the short time Dr. Mara had with my people, I believe we can rule out that possibility."

"What does that leave us with?" Kirk wondered.

"Without Dr. McCoy's opinion, the only alternative that I can suggest is that Dr. Mara is not human."

()

Scotty reported to Kirk through the intercom in Kirk's quarters.

"Ye would nae believe it, Captain," he enthused. "All that lass has tae do is look at a circuit drawing, and she comes up with somethin' better. She may be a wee bit dour, but she knows her stuff. She's a marvel." Kirk's eyebrows rose at such high praise from the Engineer.

"You're getting along well, then," he said hopefully.

"We were, sir," came the answer, and Kirk groaned inside. "The problem is, she got sight of our environmentally controlled suits the ones landing parties wear on environmentally hazardous planets."

Kirk nodded, even though the Engineer couldn't see him.

"I know the ones you mean, Scotty," he said. He thought of the silver coloured suits, whose thick necked helmets sat stiffly on one's shoulders. "What happened?"

"Well, sir, she looked a' them, and cursed the military for using the `economy version'." Kirk's lips twitched. "Then she took one and disappeared into the Science lab. She's been there all afternoon."

"Do we have enough suits to be safe?" Kirk asked, his ship his first concern.

"Aye, sir," Scotty confirmed.

"Well, then, I wouldn't worry about it too much, Mr. Scott. I'll just warn Spock that she's taken over his lab. Kirk out." He chuckled for a moment at Scotty's report, then started for the door.

The intercom beeped urgently, and Uhura's voice crackled from the speaker.

"Emergency. Bridge to Captain Kirk." Kirk whirled, and pressed the button of the unit.

"Kirk here. What is it, Lieutenant?"

"We're receiving a distress signal, sir. But it's getting faint," she answered.

"Could be that lifeship that Dr. Mara mentioned. Try to get a fix on it. I'm on my way. Kirk out." The automatic doors were barely open wide enough for him as he rushed to the turbo lift, his message for Spock forgotten.

()

The warning was unnecessary: The Science Officer had already discovered Dr. Mara in his lab. They pointedly ignored each other. Spock stationed himself at a computer terminal; Dr. Mara sat on a stool by the duplicating machine, and waited for it to manufacture another of her inventions.

There were five of them piled on a nearby desk. They looked like large clear plastic bags with small boxes on one end. A radically modified environmental suit sprawled grotesquely beside them, it's arms and legs bent at impossible angles.

Spock raised his head to look absently into space, and Dr. Mara stiffened.

"Mr. Spock," she said, and turned to look at him. Her face betrayed no emotion as the Vulcan regarded her with equal inscrutability. "While I worked with the Vulcan team, they discovered that I am extremely `quiet' mentally. Conversely, I found that I am extremely sensitive to their telepathy." Spock's eyes flickered, and she continued. "I would appreciate it if you would discontinue your attempts at mental examination."

Again, Spock found himself reminded of childhood lessons from his father on Vulcan etiquette.

"My apologies, Doctor," he said gravely. "I was not trying to intrude. I am merely curious as to how a human is able to display Vulcan traits, as you do."

"There are many humans sensitive to telepathy, Mr. Spock," she deliberately misunderstood him. Spock leaned forward slightly.

"I meant your ability to control your emotions, Doctor," the Vulcan said. Dr. Mara refused to meet his eye. "Illogical though it may be," he continued, "I have observed that humans need emotional display."

"I do not," the scientist replied coldly, as if it were a well memorized litany. "I have my mind, my hands, and my eyes. As a scientist, they are my tools. With that, I am content."

Spock would have pursued the subject further, but the beep of the intercom halted the conversation.

"Mr. Spock, are you there?" Kirk's voice echoed in the room.

"Spock here," the First Officer answered.

"We're getting a distress signal from a nearby planet. You'd better get up here."

"Yes, sir," and Spock was gone. He left behind a thoughtful Dr. Mara, and she clumsily pulled the oddly shaped bag from the duplicating machine.

()

As Spock entered the Bridge, he heard a choking voice crackle intermittently through the bridge speakers.

"Can't repair . . . only three of us . . . injured . . . no more air . . . " Kirk looked anxiously at Uhura, who desperately tried to maintain contact. She finally shook her head.

"It's no good, sir. Communications are too poor."

"Only logical, Lieutenant," the Vulcan at the Science Station said, his eyes splashed with the blue light of the viewer. "The planet in question is almost completely liquid sulfuric acid, and a storm is developing over the origin of the broadcast."

"It must be that lifeship," Kirk said. Three men, injured, their air running out, and he was unable to save them.

"There are small outcrops of rock on the planet," Spock said calmly. "It is possible that the ship is lodged on one. If this is so, we could beam down to them."

Kirk was galvanized into action. He almost threw himself toward the turbo lift doors, and called orders as he went.

"Mr. Sulu, take the conn. Mr. Spock, come with me. Lieutenant Uhura, get Dr. McCoy to meet us in the Transporter Room and bring his medkit." The doors closed just as the long legged Spock went through them.

()

Scott stood at the controls of the Transporter, and watched the three men awkwardly move into position in the chamber. Their movements were hampered by their environmentally controlled suits, and the fact that each carried a suit for the survivors. In addition, McCoy held his medkit tightly in one gloved fist.

"Indeterminate injuries, oxygen starvation, and probably acid burns as well," he said, half to himself. "I hope we make it in time, Jim." Kirk nodded at him. His voice echoed strangely inside the helmet that encased his head.

"So do I, Bones. Ready, Scotty," he signalled the Engineer. "What's the name of this planet, anyway, Spock?" he asked as the beaming lights came on.

"I believe it is called Charon," came his First Officer's reply, their bodies already beginning to sparkle and disappear.

They came out in a small lifeship, surrounded by bodies. McCoy had out his sensors, and each of them examined the men to see if any lived.

"Here's one, Bones," called Kirk through the smoke. He tried to put the man into the suit that he brought with him. Spock did the same, with more success, to a survivor he found. McCoy gave a man a hypospray, then fumbled with his spare suit.

The lifeship gave a tremendous shiver.

"It's that storm!" Kirk shouted against the sound of wind and creaking support struts. His vision went double momentarily, and he shook his head to clear it.

"What, Captain?" Spock asked. He saw Kirk's lips move, but he heard no sound. Kirk looked dizzily at Spock, and wondered why he couldn't hear his friend. The ship, he thought fuzzily. I must contact the ship. The floor under him heaved as he tried to raise the _Enterprise_. There was no answer.

"Spock!" he shouted. He gripped his friend's arm for support as the lifeship shook again. Now he saw black spots. McCoy was on his knees, his face ashen. What was happening? he asked himself as he lost consciousness.

Spock grabbed a strut, and fought to breathe struggled to stay conscious. Both McCoy and Kirk lay as if dead. Their heads rolled as the lifeship was battered by the acid winds and seas outside. Finally, Spock, too, was driven to his knees. In desperation, he tried again to reach the _Enterprise_.

"_Enterprise_! Come . . . in . . . _Enterprise_." Nothing. As the blackness reached out for him, he found himself thinking, "Mara . . . can you hear . . . me . . . ."

()

Startled, Dr. Mara almost fell off her stool. She quickly went to the intercom, and hailed the Bridge.

"Is Mr. Spock there?" she said, her voice under control.

"No, Doctor," the woman at the other end answered. "He went with the Captain and Doctor McCoy. They're on the planet right now."

"Which planet is that?" she asked.

"The planet Charon. We picked up the distress signal from that lifeship you told us about, with three survivors on board."

"Has there been any word from them?" Dr. Mara asked, and correctly interpreted the pause before the answer came.

"Not yet, Doctor."

"I see. Thank you." She cut the connection, and went to tap quickly on the computer. As fast as the data spread itself on the screen, the scientist evaluated it. "Sulfuric acid! Those suits will break down," she whispered, and heard again Spock's mental voice.

She scooped up armfuls of her experimental devices, and ran out the door.

()

"Captain Kirk! Come in, Captain Kirk," Scotty said anxiously as the woman scientist burst into the transporter room. There was no reply. Dr. Mara ran up the steps to the chamber and dropped her load of what appeared to be clear plastic bags, grabbed her modified environmental suit, and struggled to get into it.

"Here! What are ye doin'?" Scotty asked as he came around the console of the transporter.

"Give me a hand, Scotty," the woman panted, "I just got a telepathic message from Spock. They're in trouble. I think their suits broke down." Scotty paled, but remained firm.

"I canna send ye down there," he insisted. "What good would it do?" The scientist paused her frantic and clumsy efforts to don the suit.

"Mr. Scott," she said, her face as serene as ever, but her voice urgent, "we have very little time to argue. That environment will destroy those suits, and your Captain and everyone else will die. I have made this suit stronger, so it should be fine. These survival bags will buy us the time we need." The Engineer still looked doubtful.

"Look, Scotty," she pleaded. "Give me three minutes. Then beam us back. I heard Spock, Scotty." Her voice dropped. "But I can't hear him anymore." Suddenly decided, Scotty strode to the chamber to help her with the suit.

()

A golden whirlwind appeared in the shaking lifeship, and solidified into the form of a heavily laden Dr. Mara. She saw the men who wore the remains of disintegrating suits, and quickly identified them.

"Now, then," she said to herself as she knelt by McCoy, "Logic. We need the doctor to recover first."

She slipped the bag over him, fastened it slowly, and turned a knob on the box at the top. Life support functions hummed, barely audible over the howl of the wind outside.

She checked her chronometer. That had taken too long. She hesitated, then drew off the heavy gloves. She breathed hard to ignore the pain as the acid in the air found her skin. Kirk was next.

McCoy reluctantly opened his eyes just as the three minutes elapsed, and saw a bare handed figure in a strange suit trying to stay upright against the violent shuddering of the lifeship. He just had time to recognize the calm face as Dr. Mara's before he realized that he was being beamed up.

She watched them dissolve into nothingness. Just as the last golden particle vanished, the lifeship groaned with the sound of rending metal. It lurched drunkenly, and a great crack appeared in the hull.

The woman was thrown to the floor, and her suit tore on the jagged edge of the crack. Her helmet shattered against the base of a bulkhead. The vicious acid wind whirled against her, pinned her down, and blasted her exposed skin. With a scream in her mind, Dr. Mara covered her eyes with her arm, and waited for death.

()

Scott had medical aides on standby as the chamber lights flickered and the forms of bodies appeared. The moment it was safe, they rushed to the bag encased men, and took them out of the hastily contrived lifesavers. McCoy looked around groggily.

"Was I hallucinating, or did I see Dr. Mara down there in some sort of monkey suit?" he asked weakly. He noted that Kirk, Spock, and the three others were moving. Scott gave a startled second look at the collection of people on the transporter pad.

"You mean she's not here?" he croaked. Since his eyes answered his own question, he sprang to the console again, and frantically pushed buttons.

"Dr. Mara?" came the sharp question from the still woozy Kirk. "Why was she down there?" Before Scott could answer, Spock spoke up.

"I believe that I am responsible, Captain," he said as he rubbed his temples. "Dr. Mara is sensitive to Vulcan telepathy. When I couldn't reach the ship, and I knew I was losing consciousness, I used telepathy as a last resort. Apparently it worked."

"Yes," said a grim Kirk. "It worked all too well. She must have followed us. Scotty, why did you let her go?" The busy engineer didn't stop his hands.

"I had verra little choice, Captain," he burred. "Only she knew how to operate those gadgets you arrived in, and the suit she had was designed for someone her size. Add to that the time factor, and . . . " He pulled the transporter levers.

"And you had to," McCoy finished as he bent unsteadily over a survivor from the lifeship. "Don't blame him, Jim."

Kirk looked unhappily at the chamber, which remained ominously empty. He thought of the woman down there, and the possibility of yet another ghost to haunt his nights. The certainty of a court martial to explain it all flashed briefly through his head as he heard Scotty curse.

"I'm going tae have to use the thing she rigged up yesterday," he said. "Let's hope it works." He pressed a button, and once more moved the levers. This time the familiar hum of the transporter started, and a crumpled shape materialized on the chamber floor.

"Good God," came McCoy's horrified whisper. The thing that lay there had very little resemblance to a human body. Raw flesh lay burned by acid, oozing blood. As the doctor ran to kneel beside it, he saw a flash of metal where a forearm bone should be. He touched the face, which looked as if it were melted, and drew his hand back. From his fingers dripped liquid plastic. Kirk sat quickly on the step, his face white, his teeth clenched. One of his aides was sick.

"Give me that medkit!" McCoy barked harshly as he snapped into his professional manner. Spock reached out a long arm, yanked it from the helpless aide, and brought it to the doctor's side. "She's still alive, but I don't know how," he grunted. Spock handed him what he needed, and the doctor saw a dark concern deep in the Vulcan's eyes.

()

Four days later, McCoy was still mystified, but for different reasons. All his patients from the incident were certified healthy, but Dr. Mara still lay unconscious. Spock and Kirk watched him work.

"She's a mess, Jim," he said. He stood by the inert form that lay under the display of her vital signs. "But most of that damage is old; old scar tissue on the head, covered by a clever plastiflesh face. Her arms have extensive plastic and metal reconstruction, though her hands and eyes escaped whatever it was. I've sent for her medical records. Without them, I can't do much more for her."

"Her hands and eyes," said Spock, more to himself than anyone. Kirk looked at him quizzically, and Spock explained, "She said she didn't need anything more than her mind, her hands, and her eyes."

"That's practically all she has," McCoy observed.

"That explains some things," Kirk said. "For instance, her difficulty when she reached for things, and her ease once the object was reached."

"Also the lack of expression on her face," McCoy said as he realized that his judgement of her hadn't been based on all the facts. "Good grief, she hasn't got a face to express with. How could she live with that?"

"That she did, Doctor, speaks well of her strength of will," Spock said.

"And her courage," added Kirk. Nurse Chapel came in and handed McCoy a tape.

"Here are the records I asked for," he said as he crossed the room. He put the tape into the computer, and tapped keys. Lines of print formed on the screen while Kirk and Spock looked over his shoulder.

"Lab accident," McCoy read, then turned a sick look at Kirk. "Acid burns." He ran a slow hand over his face, while the other two reflected on their own silent thoughts.

The screen flashed into life, and displayed a picture of a very pretty girl. She smiled out from a background of flowers and trees. McCoy's voice broke as he read the subtitle.

"Denise Mara, prior to accidental burning." He fumbled to switch off the computer. He was scarcely aware of Kirk's hand on his shoulder, and didn't see Spock standing solemn, looking at the body on the bed.

()

"You called for me, Doctor?" Spock asked from the door of Sick Bay. If he was surprised that McCoy wanted to consult with him, he didn't show it. McCoy, glum and weary after three more days of watching, waved him in. In the next room, Kirk stood by the mass of scars and medical coverings that was Doctor Denise Mara.

"Starfleet's been after him," McCoy jerked a thumb in Kirk's direction as Spock stood by his desk. The Vulcan raised an eyebrow in a silent question. "They need that report on the cloaking device," McCoy explained. "It's locked up in that patchwork quilt of wounds called Dr. Mara's head. I'm doing all I can physically, but she's wasting away." He spread his hands helplessly and let them fall. He looked ruefully at the silent Science Officer.

"You were right, Spock," he said in the closest thing to an apology that the Vulcan knew he would ever get from McCoy. "I let my personal feelings cloud my professional judgement." The Vulcan shifted his weight.

"I, too, was incorrect in my assessment of Dr. Mara," he said, and chose not to notice McCoy's surprise. "Her mental and emotional control is so strong that I doubted she was human."

"She's human, all right," the doctor assured him. "But that lab accident must have been traumatic enough to drive her into herself, to retreat behind walls that protected her from hurt."

"And her only outlet was her work," Kirk observed from the doorway.

"Like a fence with only one gate," added McCoy.

"Fascinating," Spock commented. He crossed his arms, and narrowed his eyes in thought.

"It's like all fences," said Kirk quietly. "You can keep people out, but you also keep yourself in." The Vulcan cocked his head as he considered his friend's words.

"Only now she's closed the gate, too," the doctor sighed. "She's completely trapped, and who knows what's going on in there? But whatever it is, it's killing her."

"That explains why she's still unconscious," Kirk said in discouragement. "She doesn't want to come out. And if she doesn't recover enough to recall the data on the Romulan project, all that research, and those scientists' lives, will have been wasted." The Vulcan and his captain exchanged a long glance.

McCoy turned to Spock hopefully. "You said she's sensitive to Vulcan telepathy." Spock's eyebrows drew together slightly.

"Apparently she is," he agreed. "Are you suggesting a mind meld, Doctor?"

"I know it's a big thing, Spock," McCoy said. "But all that I can do has been done."

"It could be rough, Spock," Kirk warned.

"I know, Captain," the Vulcan replied. "But, as you say, we need that data, and it would be illogical not to try every alternative."

"You'd risk your sanity on those grounds alone?" the amazed doctor demanded.

"Why not, Doctor?" Spock asked reasonably. "If I lose my sanity, I would rather do it for logical reasons than otherwise." McCoy threw his hands in the air, and gave up. A thought occurred to Kirk.

"Spock, didn't Dr. Mara say that recording machine of hers is keyed to her brain patterns?" The Science Officer nodded as he followed his captain's line of thought.

"That presents a difficult challenge," he frowned. "I must not disturb them. To use your analogy, Doctor, I cannot climb over the fence, or even push open the gate. I must persuade her to open it herself."

"Can you do that?" asked McCoy, concern in his eyes for both Spock and his patient.

"I do not know, Doctor. But I propose to find out." Without a backward glance he strode into the next room while Kirk and McCoy, looking apprehensive, followed.

The Vulcan stood motionless as he readied his mind and prepared his thoughts. Then his right hand came up, fingers spread wide, and gently hovered over the place that had once been Dr. Mara's forehead. His eyes closed, his hand descended, and he entered the mind of Denise Mara.

"I'm still not sure about this, Captain," whispered McCoy to Kirk. Kirk nodded, eyes fixed on Spock.

"Jim!" McCoy insisted, and Kirk looked at him in annoyance. "Help me bring a bed over beside Spock." Kirk was about to ask why, but the doctor stopped him with an upraised hand. "Just in case," he said. "Remember how other mind melds affected him?" Kirk paused as scenes of a thoroughly exhausted Spock flashed through his memory.

"You have a point," he admitted, and followed McCoy.

()

Spock couldn't get through. It was as if he stood at a blank wall, bashing it with his forehead. It was cold, and silent. Briefly he wondered if his own mind felt like this.

"Denise," he thought, and tried to pierce the barrier.

"Denise . . . Denise . . . Denise," the word echoed back at him mockingly.

"Doctor Mara," he tried. Was it his imagination, or was there less of an echo at those words? Stubbornly, he fought his way along the wall, looking for the place where his thoughts could get in.

()

Kirk and McCoy watched the Vulcan closely. He had been in a trancelike state for half an hour. Sweat formed on his face, but his hands were steady, and his face wore the familiar calm. Both observers hoped that it was going well, unaware of what Spock faced next.

()

He had found it the place where there was no echo when he called her by her title. This must be McCoy's "gate", the only place she would allow any creative outflow-her work. He fought back his sense of fatigue and gathered his strength.

"Doctor," he thought. "You must work. You have work to do." For the split part of a millisecond, the barrier weakened, and the stench of fear and pain filled Spock's mind. He heard the afterimage of a scream slash at his consciousness.

()

"Bones," whispered Kirk, his eyes wide. The doctor turned from his charts, saw the display, and shot from his chair.

"What happened?" he said. He stared at the wildly fluctuating indicators above Dr. Mara's bed. Spock was sweating profusely, and his skin was a darker green.

"I don't know," Kirk said. "It was as if they were both hit by a phaser on low charge." He turned a worried look on the doctor. "Bones, we don't need that information so badly that we can risk Spock."

"I know, Jim. And if there was a way to break that mind meld, I would do it. But there isn't. If I tried, it could be just as fatal as letting him continue. He's got to do it himself." Kirk nodded his reluctant acceptance of the facts.

"It doesn't make it any easier," he sighed.

()

"Remember your work," Spock began again, and braced himself. "Think of the research. Remember the cloaking device." He pictured the long dark cylinder topped by the glowing white globe. "You must finish your work."

The wall exploded in his face with a scream of,

"NO!"

Spock was crushed by the avalanche of pain, whirled in a tornado of acid wind and screeching terror. He fought grimly to hold on, and struggled to his mental feet.

"You . . . must . . . finish . . . your work!" he shouted at the top of his mind. The answer was a flood of unspeakable agony.

()

Kirk caught Spock's body as he collapsed; he and McCoy eased the Vulcan onto the bed. They looked at each other helplessly. Spock's hand was still on Dr. Mara's forehead.

()

"NO!" the scream hit him again. "NO!" He reeled with each impact, and felt his strength slip from him. He knew he had one last chance. He concentrated the rest of his energy for a final attempt.

"WHY . . . NOT?" he thundered above the howling storm of searing, burning torture. "It . . . is not . . . logical . . . to leave . . . unfinished work."

"NOT LOGICAL . . . not logical . . . not . . . unfinished work . . . unfinished . . . work?" echoed the storm in ever quieter circles. It spiralled down into a chasm of vast lostness and confusion.

"No," Spock gasped. "Remember . . . the research." He again held in his mind the picture of the glowing white globe. It was snatched from his thoughts like he had once imagined a drowning man would grasp at a blade of grass.

Slowly, across a field of debris and litter, he sensed something come into order. Bits of scattered nothing swept themselves together and formed into glowing patterns of logical precision. Spock, lover of precision in all things, marvelled at its beauty. Even as he marvelled, he fell into the dark hole of his own exhaustion.

()

McCoy lifted the Vulcan's limp arm, and arranged it beside Spock's body. He glanced up at the triangular lights that moved on the overhead life functions display.

"They're approaching normal levels, Jim. He may have pulled it off." Kirk moved to Spock's side.

"But at what cost to himself, Bones?" the captain worried.

"We'll have to wait til he comes to," came the philosophical answer. Kirk lightly touched his friend's shoulder with his fingertips.

"Spock," he whispered. Had he lost his friend doomed him to be a mindless vegetable? A light tremor passed over the Vulcan's frame, and his eyes dragged open halfway.

"Spock," said Kirk, hope in his voice. He bent to hear the whisper from the Vulcan's lips.

"I'm all . . . right. Need . . . rest." Kirk nodded.

"And Dr. Mara?" he asked the Vulcan.

"Beautiful," came the answer, breathed as his eyes closed and he drifted into a deep, healing sleep.

"Now I wonder what that was all about?" McCoy's startled query came, and Kirk matched the doctor's puzzled look with one of his own.

()

A convivial group gathered in the transporter room to send Dr. Mara off to report to Starfleet Command. Kirk, Scott, McCoy, and Spock stood around the recovered scientist. Her hair hung softly around her new plastiflesh face, which was carefully made up to give the impression of a hint of contentment with life.

"Now, lassie," Scott instructed her, "make sure that next time those slave drivers doon there order you to travel, ye come with us. I still have some wondrous pieces of microcircuitry to show ye." He grinned broadly at the face that couldn't smile back.

"If only for that reason, Mr. Scott," came a warm voice from the face, "I shall."

"Do keep us in mind, Doctor," Kirk added to the invitation with a sincere smile of his own. "If there's one thing a starship should have, it's a resident gadgeteer. We never know when one will come in handy."

"Offer me a position, and I'll be on your transporter step," she promised.

"Ah, but not before you follow my orders," interrupted McCoy with the possessive tone of a doctor addressing his patient.

"Yes, Doctor," said the woman patiently. "I will go to the psychotechs and the medtechs, as you have prescribed."

"And she'll improve their machines for them, nae doot," put in Scotty, to a general round of chuckles. McCoy turned serious again.

"They may not be able to give you back...all you have lost, but they can give you more mobility than you have now; enough to express as much emotion as Spock does, perhaps." The Vulcan's eyebrows rose as everyone looked at him.

"I find my face sufficiently mobile for my needs," he said coolly, oblivious to the men's smiles.

"Then I'm sure I shall also," Dr. Mara said with acceptance in her tone. "It is not logical to desire something beyond what is reasonably possible, Doctor, and beauty is not possible for me." McCoy solemnly took one of her hands.

"I know it may sound impossible," he said as he looked into her eyes, "but when I saw you there in that lifeship, risking your life to rescue us well, there's such a thing as beauty being deeper than the skin, and you have that kind of beauty." The woman could not blush, but the back of her neck grew pink.

"I am afraid that for once I agree with Doctor McCoy," the Science Officer broke the moment. Dr. Mara turned to face him, her mind a query.

"I have seen the real Denise Mara," he continued, "And though I do not know how other men measure beauty, to me . . . you are beautiful." There was a stunned silence. Finally Dr. Mara drew a deep breath.

"Thank you, Mr. Spock," she said, and walked quickly into the transporter chamber. She raised her hand, and her fingers formed the "V" of the Vulcan salute. As she glittered into nothingness, Spock heard her whisper, "Live long . . . and prosper," and raised his own hand in response.

THE END

Other Star Trek original series stories by this author on this site are: "Foundling's Keepers", "Physician, Heal Thyself", and "Side Effects".


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